Woody Allen: 'My career has been anything but ordinary'

Woody Allen has remarked that his directing career has been anything but ordinary.

The filmmaker reflected on the struggles most directors have to get their movies made in an interview with The AP and said that he has been able to totally "avoid" those battles.

"I've managed to avoid over decades the hit-flop syndrome… Most filmmakers work in that spectrum, and they have the pluses and minuses," Allen said.

The director further explained: "[Others] get the delight and pleasure out of a great hit, and they love the awards, they love the parties, the opening-night parties, the premieres. The box-office returns are heady for them, and they love it.

"But when something doesn't work, very often, they have trouble getting money for their next picture. I've never had that problem. I've never had their joys or their lows. I've just sort of existed since 1968 making films kind of on a low flame, burning on a low flame. And that's fine, because the fun for me is to make the picture."

Even though Allen has won three Academy Awards and 11 BAFTAs, he says he still doesn't consider any of his movies to be truly "great".

"I'm still trying to make a great film, and that goal keeps me going," he noted. "To keep trying to make something that I feel could play alongside films that I consider great.

"If there was a festival in a theatre, and they were showing 12 films, and they were showing Citizen Kane and The Bicycle Thief, that I could have one of mine in there with it, and they would say, 'Oh, yeah, that's one of the 12'."

He is currently working on a Rome-set comedy called Nero Fiddled, which will star Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin and Ellen Page. Allen will also make his first on-screen appearance since 2006's Scoop in his new movie.